What justification would my character have to work with the Order of the Torrent?

[MonkeySage]

He's a young halfling who until recently lived in Infernal Cheliax. His parents were runaway slaves, and when he was 12 they were captured by the Hellknight Order of the Chain. They were executed, and he was purchased by a minor family. He was treated harshly, and blames Hellknights for the deaths of his parents and his own enslavement.

The Order of the Torrent are a mostly lawful good order of Hellknights dedicated to rescuing victims of kidnapping. My character's view is "Great! Where were they? Do slaves not count as victims of kidnapping?"

As a result, he views the Order of the Torrent as useless hypocrites. From my understanding, many of the quest givers in Hell's Rebels are Hellknights.

What justification would this chaotic good halfling recently freed from slavery have to even be willing to work with them?

I'm actually wondering if he'd even be able to tell the difference- if the mere sight of the black armor would make him very uneasy.

[Troacctid]

You can't think of any common cause that you might have with them? No possible shared goals? Like maybe the main quest of the AP? I haven't run the mods, but I assume the overarching goal of them isn't "Help your old Hellknight friend get their life back together after a personal tragedy" or anything like that. There's hero stuff involved, yeah? Are you or are you not a hero? So buckle up, swallow your pride, and do the heroics. Teaming up with people you hate is just another word for "character development." And if you can't think of any reason why your character would engage in wanton heroism, then do it for the rest of your party, because they're your friends, and you're not going to leave them in the lurch. Or, alternatively, do it for the money. Adventurers gotta get paid just like anyone else.

(...That's the speech I would give your character if I were your party's bard.)

[Saintheart]

What justification would my character have to work with the Order of the Torrent?

He happens to to be a cleric of VPN?

[MonkeySage]

Getting to that point is the issue. My character views Hellknights as slavers at worst, and enablers at best. So I'm trying to think of why he'd even want to approach someone wearing the black armor- why he'd think any kind of heroics is even possible with these guys. Cause they did a pretty terrible job of saving his fellow slaves, after all. He would be interested in heroics, but he doesn't have any reason at this time to view Hellknights as allies in this cause.

Pretty much, he sees a hellknight, and thinks "they probably wanna capture me. I should hide, run, or fight." He would be shocked if they even tried to make conversation with him, but that'd make him all the more suspicious.

[Troacctid]

So have his party members give him a proverbial thump on the back of the head.

[Rleonardh]

How about they can't do the job
So this halfling will do there job for them?

[Kol Korran]

An initial motivation, to get him starting working with them:
He wants to infiltrate them, learn their secrets in order to free more slaves, and raise an efficient (and well informed) resistance to take the bloody Hellknights once and for all!

But first, he needs to get accepted by them, gain at least a small measure of trust... He'll go along as their... "Employee/ ally"... for now, as long as it doesn't directly causes more enslavement/ misery (and if that may happen, he can try and circumvent the worst effects, in order to later fix them).

This way your character can work for these knights, and even try to do well on the mission, long enough to get to know them and potentially have character development/ growth/ change of heart/ realization/ ya-da-da-da...

It may even lead for some good "conflict" roleplay within the party, and internally as well... I just suggest to talk about this plan with the GM and other players, so they'll know where you coming from, and try to avoid situations and actions which may force your character too far (and you'll have to agree to avoid crossing some lines as well).

How does that sound?

[Mnemius]

Since Hell's Rebels was mentioned,

It's more you're looking for allies against a common foe, and well, said foe has tried wiping them out. Enemy of my enemy type stuff. Also, Hells Rebels? I've only dealt with them for part of a book. Then they sorta fell to background.Also, they're such a small order, they are disbanded/stripped of legal powers and rights.

Order of the Torrent is more localized and focused on anti-piracy kidnappings. I mean, there's a water word in the name. Also struck me as a more minor order of Hellknights, no where near the power and eminence of the other types of Hellknight.

Also, in Cheliax, the child of a slave is a slave. So technically, nothing unlawful there. If the same owner owned the mom and dad, you don't even get arguments over who owns the kid. You forgot the part about LAWFUL good, especially in cheliax.

[MonkeySage]

Also, in Cheliax, the child of a slave is a slave. So technically, nothing unlawful there. If the same owner owned the mom and dad, you don't even get arguments over who owns the kid. You forgot the part about LAWFUL good, especially in cheliax.

Aye this is the main issue, yes. For clarification:

The kid's parents were runaways. They managed to avoid recapture for over 12 years, but had become involved in something or other, and got captured. Order of the Chain tends not to execute their captives, his parents were likely not executed/were executed by inquisitors. Either way, his new owner at least informed him of the execution- to taunt him.

The kid, one way or another, ended up a slave with this minor family.

I haven't forgotten- Lawful Good tends to be pretty weak on the issue of slavery in the best of times, part of why I prefer chaotic alignments for my characters, but in Cheliax "Lawful Good" Hellknights can be easily ruled out as allies to a former slave.

Regardless in any event it's unlikely at the start of the campaign this character would even be aware of the Torrent. He'd just see some dudes in black armor, and wouldn't distinguish between them and the Order of the Chain.